Complete Denial

I am 100% in complete denial that summer break starts tomorrow at 1:30pm. I don’t think that there is enough wine in New Jersey to get me through this summer. This will probably be the hardest summer home with the boys yet. I really do want to be that mom that enjoys having my kids around all summer, I miss them when they are at school but when all three of them are home together, it’s a nightmare. I have 3 little minions who can entertain me and show me all of the joys of summertime that I have long forgotten but unfortunately, that’s not what happens in our house. I love them all to death, I would give my life for theirs, but man, summer is hard! But we are going to try our best to have one awesome summer….just as long as the boys cooperate!

Sidenote…. now that school is ending, everything that my kids could possibly hoard at school has been sent home in their backpacks over the past week. I have this endless pile of papers to go through. Time to reduce and recycle their gorgeous math worksheets. I have been pretty good about trashing things this year but they just quadrupled my pile of papers. This is my project for the first week of summer vacation.

The past few weeks have really been rough for us. Joey has been dealing with a serious leg injury preventing him from doing a lot of things. He has been resting that leg as much as possible. The boys have also been giving us a hard time, we are at our breaking point with the oldest boys and I have never had so much anxiety about spending a summer with all three of them. I really want to be able to do fun and exciting things with the kids but when all they do is act up, I refuse to reward them. I attempt one or two things and if they misbehave then I just want to skip out on the rest of the fun. It’s a nightmare. Why should we even bother. One of these days I hope that they realize all of the fun things that we could have been doing if they just stopped fighting and acting up. One on one they are awesome and fun. But put them together and it’s mayhem. I mean these boys got into a huge fight at the local Veterans Cemetery minutes before they placed flags on all of the graves. Yes ladies and gentlemen, those are my kids. It’s embarrassing and I can’t control them so that’s why I struggle taking all of the boys somewhere by myself. It’s hard even when Joey is with us, I can’t imagine all by myself. I give so much credit to those parents that venture out with all of their kids. It takes a village but some days even the village throws up the white flag.

Even tonight at Ben’s basketball evaluations, it was nonstop fighting. The car ride over was a nightmare, then it rained and we were moved to another court, more fighting. Then when we finally get there they are fighting and punching and kicking right up until Ben got called onto the court. It’s NEVERENDING!!!!!!!

Now Owen, let’s talk about that little minion. He’s cute but don’t be fooled by that adorable face and his cute, kind words.

We will all be sitting outside on the deck or playing basketball and Owen will catch my eye, give me a smirk and then take off. And when he takes of he doesn’t stop or look. This kid is going to give me a heart attack. Everyone always laughs that I still keep him in his stroller, but I have a valid reason for it. It’s not to make my life easier, it’s to keep him safe. But every time I chase after him, the other boys freak out. Just last week, Owen took off up the sidewalk. He was on his big wheel so I caught him only 2 houses away. Well I ended up running into a neighbor and started chatting. 10 minutes later I walk back and Ben and Sean were in tears. They thought that I got kidnapped. So not only does Owen give me heart palpitations but he is causing his brothers to stress out as well.

I did finally sit down and book some camps for them {THANK GOD}. See my pile of medical forms, pickup authorizations, emergency contact forms, etc….

They both will go to cub scout camp and a local summer camp for a few weeks. Sean will also do two weeks of basketball camp and Ben is going to play in a nighttime basketball league {which I mentioned started tonight}. Oh and Sean needs a little help with math so he is doing the school’s summer math program. I am glad that he will be getting some extra help, he’s not as excited about that camp as I am. So Sean will be booked up pretty much the entire summer. Ben, not so much. I am also hoping and praying that since Sean will be gone a lot, that the fighting will be minimal but I also need a ton of new ideas to entertain Ben when he isn’t at camp. He really thinks that he is going to spend his entire summer on the iPad. NOPE, NOT HAPPENING!!!! He is not the easiest child on the planet so it will be a struggle but I plan on helping him with his handwriting, some math skills and some good old fashioned fun. Ben will regret not wanting to do more camps! But we do have a fun vacation planned, and I will squeeze in some bowling, slip and slides, swimming, play dates and sleepovers and some other fun activities. It won’t all be camps and work!

Mommy and daddy even have some fun plans this summer. We just saw Dave Matthew’s last week and are headed back again this weekend. I can’t wait to spend an evening out with Joey, our cousin and our friends. It should be a fun weekend. We also are going to see Coldplay in August. We saw them a long time ago at MSG in NYC and I absolutely loved their live show. I just hope that they are still as good as they were 12 or so years ago!

So tell me guys, what are your plans for your kids this summer. Tell me that I am not alone with my anxiety? I really do want to have fun with them, but they make it soooooo difficult???? The only thing that makes me super excited about summertime is that Big Brother starts tomorrow night!! WOO HOO!!!!